


Spectrum

by tsubasa_quill



Category: Hey! Say! JUMP
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dark, Android, Gen, Stockholm Syndrome, brief mentions of BEST, mentions of grievous injuries, non-idol!verse, programmer Inoo, questionable concepts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-15
Updated: 2016-03-15
Packaged: 2018-05-26 21:05:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6255775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tsubasa_quill/pseuds/tsubasa_quill
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He has a secret he is not afraid to keep but is terrified of letting go. What if his secret had feelings of its own?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spectrum

**Author's Note:**

> I was listening to Gasoline by Halsey and even though it's not completely based on the song it was inspired by it, specifically a line in the song. YamaNoo is a rare ship from what I know, but it's been a ship of mine for a while and thanks to all the cute *moments* in Jumping Carnival DVD they became the main leads here. I apologize for misuse of terminology/concept if any.
> 
> The italicised colour descriptions is Kei making notes in his head. There is a lot of flashbacks. 
> 
> Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

_"This is wrong,"_

  _"You can't back out now,"_

  _"This is insane,"_

  _"It's too late for that,"*_

 

"Kei,"

He gasps, heart pounding in his throat. His body is drenched in sweat and he feels sick and it seems to be taking him forever to figure out where he is. 

"Kei,"

He blinks at the soft orange glow of the eyes. 

_*Concern*_

"Why- why are you here?" he stammers looking around his room. He doesn't remember returning to his room or turning off the lights. He doesn't remember getting in bed. 

"You called for me," comes the monotonous response. So different from the voice that had woken him up.

 Foreign. The soft whirr of the machine, the light knock of the core mechanism, loud, clear, strange in the silence of the night.

 It eluded him, the presence before him. Yet it had come from him.

 His greatest idea.

 His darkest secret.

 The soft orange switches to electric blue. 

 Kei frowns. He is too tired to think much.

 "Go back to your charging station," he speaks as clear as his fatigue would let him.

 The humanoid blinks twice, signs that he was processing the order before turning around and leaving the room.

 Kei flops back onto his bed, eyes on the air conditioner and its little green lights. 

 

_"Listen to me, you are not a human being,"_

  _"We are not friends,"_

_"I created you,"_

 

"You're living a lie," 

Kei places a hand over his mouth, the reality of what he had said creating a great pressure over his chest.

Miserable, pathetic, lonely... afraid.

Maybe he was slowly going insane.

 

~*~

 

"Who is he again?"

Kei ignores the sounds around him as he digs into his steaming ramen. It amuses him, the curiosity his slim figure in a hoodie, jeans and black rimmed glasses elicited from people. His neighbours believe he's the generic shut-in that would remain indoors for months on end and needed someone to come knocking on the door to make sure he was still alive. His friends believe he is unemployed and living off savings and his late family's inheritance.

They were all right- but he wasn't obligated to fill anyone in.

He could feel the light spray of the rain against the back of his neck and revels in the smell of broth and damp wood. He had spent another day wandering aimlessly through the streets, ignoring calls and text messages from his only friends.

They would never understand.

He wasn't the awkward little adolescent anymore; pitiful and bullied all throughout his childhood. He was a genius who earned scholarships, got accepted and graduated from Japan's top university for Science and Technology before disappearing for years.

Rise from the ashes... to become the smoke. 

Daiki had once complained about him wasting his talent. A genius becoming a shut-in.

Hikaru had hypothesized that he spent his days reading mangas and eating instant ramen.

Yuya had been kinder, buying him clothes so he would be a stylish shut-in at least.

Kota was too smart. He laughed his old-man laugh and decided that Kei had a secret underground lab and plans for world domination.

He was wrong about the world domination.

He sometimes wonders about them knowing. Would they admire him or be terrified of what he had done?

He pays the ramen stall owner before making his way back home. Things had been busier when he still worked for his old company before it got shut down. So much illegal research... brilliant but so wrong and all had literally gone up in smoke when the president decided to burn the labs down to save his own skin.

He didn't have the heart to destroy his project, leaving behind his partner who had attempted to do so. Every man for himself right? He wonders if his partner had gotten out safely on his own. He doubts it, otherwise, he would have come for... *it*.

*It* was Kei's greatest work. His codes and his company's hardware... the perfect bionic creation.

No, he had no reason to give it up.

Ryosuke... definitely belonged to him.

 

~*~

_"Deactivate it,"_

_"What? You were so persistent on going ahead with the plan, now you're planning to leave it behind? The fire is spreading too fast,"_

_"If this gets out we will be convicted Kei, they will take this thing away from us anyway, and it's a failure better destroyed,"_

_"I can't let you hurt him!"_

_"Him? It is a piece of machine Kei!"_

_"You know that's not true!"_

 

~*~

_"Kei,"_

_"What is it Ryosuke?"_

_"I think there is a fault in my programme,"_

_Kei swivels his chair around, abandoning his movie to stare incredulously at the robot's boyish face. His eyes were light blue, glowing softly in the dimly lit room._

_*innocent curiosity*_

_"What brings you to that conclusion?" he asks his companion of 10 months._

 " _I hear voices in my system, they are not recordings, not as far as my memory log goes,"_

  _Kei blinks at him, trying to swallow the rising dread._

  _"What do these voices tell you?"_

  _Ryosuke tilts his head and looks back at him, the blue adapting a misty gray._

 * _uncertainty*_

  _"They tell me to run and that I am alive,"_

  _"Probably a virus," Kei responds in a heartbeat, looking anywhere but at him. Ryosuke's eyes resume the electric blue and characteristically widen._

  _"I'll run an antivirus immediately!"_

  _Kei shudders at how Ryosuke's brief flights of curiosity and wonder make him appear so human._

  _"Listen to me Ryosuke, this is your main principle code," he whispers into the robot's ear as he hums quietly in his low-power mode._

  _"You are an android, a machine fashioned into the form of a boy, I created the code that keeps you running and protected you from the ones that wanted to destroy you, I am not your friend or your master... but you belong to me."_

 

Kei swears Ryosuke sometimes watches him in his sleep. He remembers a sudden awakening in the deep of night. In the drunken state of sleep, he recalls a dark figure with a pair of red lights for eyes looking down upon him.

 He remembers hearing a voice.

 "You're living a lie," it had said.

 It sounded so human; accusing, sad, broken. 

 Ryosuke had no such behavior recorded in his activity log when Kei checked in the morning so he assumed that he had dreamed it all.

 He really was going insane... or his robot's programme was evolving.

 Both had terrible outcomes.

 

~*~

 

He turns the key and pushes the door of his house open before freezing at the doorstep. Something felt terribly wrong. 

The rooms were enshrouded in darkness, just as he had left them. The door of the basement where Ryosuke was probably at his charging station was shut and if he remembers right, locked.

There is a draft and a lingering scent of coffee. Warily, he reaches for the shoe cupboard and pulls out a small pistol from a hidden compartment. 

"Who's there? Show yourself!"

"Hey!"

Kei feels his heart jump out of his chest as Kota drops a mug he had been holding in surprise. He recovers fairly quickly and smiles despite having a gun still pointed at him.

"I'm... sorry?"

Kei stares at him in disbelief before lowering the gun, frowning.

"How did you get in here?"

Kota starts to grab napkins off the kitchen counter and dabbing at the spilt coffee.

"The guys drew straws to see which one of us would  come down here to make sure you were still alive, you wouldn't answer your door so I had to break in,"   

Kei couldn't help the nervous gaze he kept throwing the basement door. Ryosuke was programmed to not respond to anything but his voice.

"I can get you arrested you know," he sighs wryly squatting down to help with the clean up. 

Kota just kept smiling, as if what he had just said was terribly amusing. The fact that he wasn't asking any questions about the gun was even more worrying. He pushes the older man away before collecting the broken pieces of his favourite mug.

He scowls.

"Well, I'm alive and well... will you leave now?" he speaks out, trying to tone down the annoyance in his voice as he dumps the wet napkins in the sink. He feels like he could faint from the anxiety. It doesn't help when Kota just gives him a friendly grin before plopping down on a stool.

"I need your help Kei-chan," he begins pulling out a picture from his coat's pocket. Hesitantly Kei reaches for it and stops breathing.

**_He_**  was smiling, so bright and alive in a high school uniform and deep red scarf.

 "Who... who is this?" he chokes out, mentally berating himself for being so obvious.

 Kota sighs, folding his arms.

 "A teenager that went missing from a hospital around 2 years ago. He was involved in a terrible car accident, doctor's reports state spinal dislocation, various fractures, multiple organ damage... he was technically beyond repair and on life support. The night his family was about to pull the plug, he just went missing,"

 Kei was trying so hard to not look at the basement again. His heart was banging so loud he had a feeling Kota could hear it.

 "Why are you telling me this?" he manages a calm response. 

Kota pulls out a badge and Kei pales. He knew Kota had joined some form of police lab but becoming a detective? That was news.

 "Well, around 10 months ago the police did a crack down on this big company, you know the medical supplies and research type. We unearthed some really controversial stuff. They were taking the stem-cell regeneration and bionics to a whole new level. Experimenting on people... really damaged people. I mean you can't turn a person's body into a machine without their consent you know, even if they are dead. Well... the president destroyed everything, set his factory and labs on fire. We managed to arrest all those who escaped including him but this missing person's case was mine and this scientist we apprehended gave me some information about it that is... unsettling,"

 Kei's mind was working as quickly as possible. He could feel the many sparks of his impulses, forming multiple strategies and evaluating outcomes.

Kota had made him put his gun away earlier. Aggression was definitely not an option.

To buy himself more time, he nods obediently and beckons Kota to continue.

 "This scientist told me his partner had escaped with a piece of stolen technology, a state of the art robotics project; a body of flesh, bone and machine running on some kind of artificial intelligence software... and when I showed him the picture of the missing teen... he admitted to having used the boy,"

 Kota had grabbed the gun from the counter and was now standing his full height as Kei backs into the wall, feeling the tormenting gaze of judgement of the taller man.

 "Kei how could you even participate in something like this?"

Kota's face is stern, almost outraged.

"Where is he?" he asks, a threat to his tone.

 "He's a robot, just a machine. You won't get what you came for," Kei replies matter of factly. He did not want a direct confrontation. This limits his options. This was bad.

 "When you chose him for the experiment he was still hanging onto his soul... his body deserves to be laid to rest not dragged around by a machine... just the thought of it disgusts me!"

 "Kota you're my friend and I wish I could make you understand but please you have to let me go," he begs and despite the sincerity, he knows it's unconvincing because he is distracted. The back door is a foot away and it leads into a narrow alley behind houses, well-hidden from the main road. 

He could make a run for it. 

He jumps as Kota grabs his arm, conflict passing briefly in his eyes before his jaw becomes firm.

"I'll try to get you a lawyer but you have to come with me, and tell me where the boy is,"

Kei sucks in a quick breath before lunging himself at the other man, causing them both to tumble onto the kitchen tiles. Kota is quicker and stronger and he flips them over, pinning Kei down.

"Don't make me drag you out at gun point Kei please!" he pleads as Kei's struggles refuse to abate. Kei can't scream, he's the criminal against a police officer, so he shuts his eyes, trying to use as much strength as possible to fight off Kota who was very powerful despite his lean physique.

Kota's phone starts to ring and he's momentarily distracted but there is a sudden shadow, a crash and a yell and there is bits and pieces of porcelain rimmed with blood all over the floor. Kota slumps against a very shocked Kei who's staring at the bright red eyes above him. Ryosuke reaches down and grabs Kota with ease before dragging and throwing him against the fridge, against Kei's protests.

_Alarmed_

"Don't hurt him!"

Ryosuke kneels and ties the older man's hands and feet.

"How did you get out? I locked the door!"

The android takes the gun, unloads it before crushing the body.

"What is going on? Damn it! You listen to me Ryosuke! This is an order!"

Ryosuke turns around and the red fades to a black- making it seem like he had holes in his eyes.

_*Murderous*_

"He called for backup while you were out, we should take the back door... I've packed for you," the android responds pointing towards a bag on the couch. Kei, bewildered, jumps to his feet and grabs the luggage and his wallet as Ryosuke looks out the window... his scanners working on overdrive. Kei listens despite the many questions. The last thing he wants it to get caught, or lose Ryosuke... or die.

"We will need to stay low for a while... I have everything planned out," Ryosuke says opening the door as Kei approaches him, observing him and trying to comprehend the erratic behaviour of his humanoid companion.

"What... how long have you been planning this? How did you keep this off your memory and activity logs?"

Kei is afraid of maybe his powerful robot turning against him, killing him off for keeping him prisoner, for wanting to be free. Maybe he deserves it... but he couldn't help it. His own attachment to Ryosuke stemmed from something he could not understand and what prompted him to prevent his destruction and keep him hidden was a mess of feelings. But Ryosuke was supposed to be a programme, how could he understand?

 "There's a lot more I can do... and I'm sorry for hiding it... but it was necessary for our survival," the boy-robot states, unlocking the back door. Kei is stunned.

 "Our survival?"

 Kei's breath catches in his chest as the jet-black changes to a beautiful lavender, and the way Ryosuke smiles, almost mischievously as he takes his hand and locks their fingers together... cold, smooth against warm and flushed... makes him remember the one truth in all the lies. The one truth that he had once fought for but now had pushed to the back of his mind by what everyone else at his company had believed in instead.

 Ryosuke... still had a soul.

 

~*~

**Author's Note:**

> References to White Lab/mood ring colours and yes a lot is still open to interpretations. Yamada is the android because of the little Robocop joke during a recent ItaJump episode with Inoo, Yuto and rollercoasters. I would really appreciate some feedback! Thank you so much for reading!
> 
> cross-posted here: http://tsubasa-ficsii.livejournal.com/10112.html


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